Bagshaw grabs sevens with both hands

Afon Bagshaw is hoping to compete in his fifth World Series tournament of the season this weekend.

2 months ago | Gary Williams

By Sebastian Barrett, Welsh Rugby Union

Fresh from scoring five tries for Wales at London Sevens on the weekend, RGC's Afon Bagshaw talks us through playing grassroots in Flint to performing on the biggest stages in world rugby.

He scored only one fewer try than his lightning-fast teammate Luke Morgan in Twickenham, who is currently second in the 2017/18 World Series try charts with an incredible 39. Clearly, the North Walian is keeping good company.

Bagshaw, 24, has played in four World Series tournaments this year, and is hoping to add the final leg in Paris this weekend to the list. "We weren't best pleased with the way we started in London, but we developed as we went on," believes Baghsaw, "and I was just lucky enough to get over the line a few times."

A strange weekend of results in London witnessed Wales lose in the group stage to Spain and Australia, before beating Ireland, who went on to claim the third spot at Twickenham. "Points difference was a big factor on the weekend, and that was what cost us a quarter-final spot," he says. Wales still managed to make it to the Challenge Trophy Final, before losing to the energetic Kenyans.

It had been almost five years since Bagshaw had represented Wales Sevens when he got called up at the tail-end of last season's Rugby Europe fixtures, played in Exeter and France. "We were competing in Romania in 2013, but then I got my Wales U20 cap," he remembers. He was part of an age group featuring Josh Adams, Elliot Dee and Tomos Williams. "Sevens was put on the backburner after that, but last year I was fortunate enough to get invited back in. I've tried to grab the opportunity with both hands, and I hope it's paid off."

Bagshaw, who lives in Colwyn Bay, has been with RGC from day one. He was part of its first academy intake in 2010. "It's been excellent to see the cub develop as fast as it has, and what's great is that there's room for improvement. I'd like to continue being part of that going forward."

Unsurprisingly, the memory of getting promoted to the Premiership ranks highly in his favourite memories. "The way we did it, we didn't make it easy for ourselves. We're a very tight group, though, so we were able to put things right and clinch the wins we needed for promotion."

In April 2017, that cohesion helped RGC lift the National Cup in their first year in the league. "That was a real big moment for me," says Bagshaw of the 15-11 result against Pontypridd at Principality Stadium.

He added to his career trophy haul just last month, captaining a fledgling Wales Sevens side to a Rugby Europe title in Moscow. "It was a massive challenge for me to step up and lead from front, which I thought I did," he says. "It was also a big challenge for the young boys coming through. I was really honoured to have been asked to captain them."

To watch Bagshaw in action for RGC or Wales Sevens is to see a player as hungry in defence as he is attack. He rationalises it as defence being "just as important as attack, and I see it as an opportunity to score as well. The harder you work in defence, the quicker the opportunity you'll get to score. You have to have that aggressive mindset in 15s and sevens: you've got to put your body on the line. I think that's something I do as best I can."

What about the rumours on social media about a race between himself and Wales Women speedster Jess Kavanagh-Williams? "We both won Try of the Year at the RGC Awards," he responds, laughing. "They were both fairly long-distance tries, so it's been all over Twitter about us having a race.

"Jess is playing for Wales in the World Series this weekend too, so we'll have to put that race on hold while we're over in Paris!"

Paris Sevens will take place from 8th-10th June at the Stade Jean-Bouin (live on Sky Sports).